1,720,956 research outputs found
Use of Framingham Risk Score as a Clinical Tool for the Assessment of Fitness for Work: Results From a Cohort Study
Full text linkOBJECTIVE: The aim of this study is to validate the use of the Framingham Risk Score (FRS) as clinical tool to predict the risk of diagnosis of unsuitability for work in a cohort of Italian workers. METHODS: A cohort of workers has been observed from January 2006 to March 2014. FRS was calculated at each visit. Health surveillance diagnosis of unsuitability for work was selected as outcome. RESULTS: Two thousand eight hundred fifty seven workers were observed, 58.9% were men, mean age was 51.6 (±6.7), the mean FRS was 15.1% (±10.7%). Increased values of FRS at baseline were associated with increased rate of diagnosis of unsuitability for work (Hazard ratio [HR], 11.2, 95%CI, 3.3 to 37.8). CONCLUSIONS: FRS is a strong predictor of diagnosis of unsuitability for work and should be used as a clinical tool for the assessment of fitness for work in health surveillance
Response to Bifulco. Comments on Triassi et al. Environmental pollution from illegal waste disposal and health effects: a reviewer on the "Triangle of Death". Int. J. Environ. Res. Public health 2015, 12, 1216-1236
No full textWe thank Bifulco [1] for his interest in reading our article and his time in writing his comments on our work [2]. Our response to his concerns are as follows:
The diseases studies in the papers that we cited in our Review on the Triangle of Death, and also others we did not include because they did not meet the inclusion criteria (Scopus, etc.), have a long period of latency. Environmental exposure related diseases require a long time before a diagnosis occurs. Diagnosis is made when the diseases ascertained, but latency refers to the length of time it takes from being exposed until when the disease becomes apparent in a clinical examination.
Latency can be as short as 10 years or as long as 50, but the average length of latency for the diseases we studied is about 20 years between exposure and diagnosis (average for malignant mesothelioma is 35 to 40 years between exposure and diagnosis).
The application of genetics to disease susceptibility moves away from the clinic towards the population, that integrated with the observational methods of epidemiology can potentially support more effective public health measures.
The majority of genetic variants or single nucleotide polymorphisms in the human genome are of low penetrance, also for genes involved in metabolism of environmental chemicals, immunity, lipid metabolism, and hemostasis among others. The high prevalence of these single nucleotide polymorphisms means that, despite the low penetrance, they could provide a significant contribution to population disease burden. Exposure-disease associations and the interplay with genetic susceptibility requires further fundamental knowledge and studies on genetic variation, environment, lifestyle, and chronic disease, that are pivotal to provide insights into disease etiology at the population level. In alignment with this vision, Prof. Bifulco reports: “In my opinion, despite preliminary scientific studies suggest a link between hazardous exposure from toxic wastes and cancer occurrence [4], to definitively clarify this point further extensive and analytical studies are required”. Indeed, Barba et al. [3] conclude that currently available evidence suffers from limitations mainly due to study design, lack of consideration of confounders and quality of the exposure data.
Despite all the sufferings and the concerns that the many issues and implications linked to the Land of Fires raise, it still provides an invaluable opportunity for research. The characterization of pollution types and sources would support effective and targeted measures to eliminate and reduce associated health risks, contributing to improved health outcomes for the population
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Full text linkThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
Variations on the Author
Full text link“Variations on the Author” discusses two of Eduardo Coutinho’s recent films (Um Dia na Vida, from 2010, and Últimas Conversas, posthumously released in 2015) and their contribution to the general question of documentary authorship. The director’s filmography is characterized by a consistent yet self-effacing form of authorial self-inscription: Coutinho often features as an interviewer that rather than express opinions propels discourses; an interviewer that is good at listening. This mode of self-inscription characterizes him as an author who is not expressive but who is nonetheless markedly present on the screen. In Um Dia na Vida, however, Coutinho is completely absent form the image, while Últimas Conversas, on the contrary, includes a confessional prologue that moves the director from the margins to the center of his films. This article examines the ways in which these works stand out in the filmography of a director who offers new insights into the notion of cinematic authorship
Appropriate Similarity Measures for Author Cocitation Analysis
Full text linkWe provide a number of new insights into the methodological discussion about author cocitation analysis. We first argue that the use of the Pearson correlation for measuring the similarity between authors’ cocitation profiles is not very satisfactory. We then discuss what kind of similarity measures may be used as an alternative to the Pearson correlation. We consider three similarity measures in particular. One is the well-known cosine. The other two similarity measures have not been used before in the bibliometric literature. Finally, we show by means of an example that our findings have a high practical relevance.information science;Pearson correlation;cosine;similarity measure;author cocitation analysis
Dispelling the Myths Behind First-author Citation Counts
Full text linkWe conducted a full-scale evaluative citation analysis study of scholars in the XML research field to explore just how different from each other author rankings resulting from different citation counting methods actually are, and to demonstrate the capability of emerging data and tools on the Web in supporting more realistic citation counting methods. Our results contest some common arguments for the continued
use of first-author citation counts in the evaluation of scholars, such as high correlations between author rankings by first-author citation counts and other citation
counting methods, and high costs of using more realistic citation counting methods that are not well-supported by the ISI databases. It is argued that increasingly available digital full text research papers make it possible for citation analysis studies to go beyond what the ISI databases have directly supported and to employ more
sophisticated methods
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